264 FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 
quest had been allowed to rest in the pigeon-hole archives 
of both the Board of Freeholders and of the Orange City 
Council, without either report or favorable action all that 
time. 
When, however, the Public Service Corporation managers 
recognized that, with the rising tide of public sentiment, 
should they continue to contend for both avenues, they 
“might fall backward and lose both,” the yielding of one— 
the least valuable for either parkway or trolley way—was 
reluctantly agreed upon. Presto! The precedent of the 
freeholders, which, since 1896, had been promulgated as a 
principle, almost too sacred or too important to be waved 
or broken, viz., that the board should not, and could not, 
act on the avenue transfer question until after the local 
governing boards directly interested had taken action, was 
at once cast to the winds. The Orange authorities had not 
only failed to act favorably on Park avenue, but had then, 
three times, expressly declined to make the transfer of both 
avenues. Notwithstanding this action and the “precedent” 
mentioned, the Board of Freeholders promptly and form- 
ally transferred Park avenue June 11, 1903, and the formal 
acceptance “with thanks of the Park Commission” soon 
followed. 
These acts and facts proved more clearly than words, that 
really nothing had stood in the way of the prompt transfer 
and parkway use of both avenues for years, excepting the 
baneful, hidden hand of the corporate giant, which was 
continuously pulling the strings behind the scenes, and ma- 
nipulating the toy officials to do its bidding in thus thwart- 
ing the will of the people, and depriving them of both their 
parkways and franchise possessions. 
